Blogs » Politics » Netizens Gather Further Evidence of PLA Hacking
Blogs » Politics » Netizens Gather Further Evidence of PLA Hacking |
- Netizens Gather Further Evidence of PLA Hacking
- China Considered Drone Strike Against Drug Lord
- China Takes Over Strategic Port in Pakistan
- ‘Gas Explosion’ Kills Chinese Official’s College-Age Daughter
- Chinese College-Student Staple Positioned as “Luxury” Good on Gilt.com
- Watch: An Animated Introduction to the Chinese Army Hacking Scandal
- Wang Lijun Allegedly Sought British Asylum
- Interactive Maps of China’s Most–and Least–Polluted Places
- Word of the Week: Expensive Country
- Photo: The Hands of Huang Magang, by Michael Steverson
- PLA Unit 61398 Recruitment Notice Found
- Cross-Strait Reunification’s New Enemy: Mainland Censors
- The Decline of the Expat: Foreigners in China Proliferate, But Become Less Special
- 25 Essential China Survival Apps
| Netizens Gather Further Evidence of PLA Hacking Posted: 20 Feb 2013 09:33 PM PST After China's Ministry of National Defense denied allegations made by U.S. cyber security company Mandiant that People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 had been conducting hacking activities against targets within the U.S. and a host of other countries, evidence in support of Mandiant's claims quickly surfaced in the form of a 2004 PLA recruitment advertisement. Since then, netizens have continued to point out evidence from across the Chinese Internet–including this Xinhua article from August 2008 [zh] that states PLA Unit 61398 specifically installed flooring for use in high-security environments:
How does Anxin Flooring relate to PLA-sponsored cyber attacks? One netizen explained the correlation on his Sina blog [zh]:
Of course, one could argue all office buildings house computers. However, not all office buildings house PLA international relations and intelligence experts, like Colonel Zhou Jianping. An announcement for a public lecture by Zhou Jianping [zh] displays his affiliation with Unit 61398:
An academic paper published in the Journal of PLA University of Science and Technology (Natural Science Edition) coauthored by a member Unit 61398, titled "Novel Method to Calculate Causal Correlation Belief Values of Network Alerts." Keywords: network security, alert correlation, attack time expense, and correlation belief. You can view the paper's cover page, which includes an English abstract, through this link. Chinese IT and Internet information portal Cecb2b.com reported on this paper [zh] in light of the New York Times piece:
Translated by Little Bluegill. © Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| China Considered Drone Strike Against Drug Lord Posted: 20 Feb 2013 08:29 PM PST China mulled the use of drone-delivered explosives to kill a wanted drug lord, who was later captured and sentenced to death for the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong river in 2011. The plan was revealed in a Chinese-language Global Times interview with Liu Yuejin, director of the Ministry of Public Security's anti-drug bureau. From Ernest Kao at the South China Morning Post:
A report last year by the U.S. Defense Science Board described the pace of China's drone development as "worrisome" and "alarming", and suggested that Beijing might "easily match or outpace U.S. spending on unmanned systems, rapidly close the technology gaps and become a formidable global competitor in unmanned systems." China's drone programmes to date have focused on surveillance, however, particularly of its long coastline. A small Chinese UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicle, was spotted in the East China Sea by a Japanese destroyer in June 2011, and both China and Japan have indicated plans to deploy drones over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. The Obama administration's opaque drone campaign in the Middle East, on the other hand, may have claimed as many as 4,700 lives, fuelling anger in the region and some opposition within the United States. Observers have long anticipated that other countries would eventually join in: in an October op-ed at The Washington Post, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker warned that America was setting important precedents, and urged the adoption of clear standards and practices for drone warfare.
The drone strike plan also demonstrates the progress of China's Beidou satellite navigation system, whose availability expanded in December to commercial users across the Asia-Pacific. From Jane Perlez at The New York Times:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| China Takes Over Strategic Port in Pakistan Posted: 20 Feb 2013 08:16 PM PST Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Limited took over management of the Pakistani port of Gwadar on Monday, amid suspicion of China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean. From Reuters:
China has repeatedly denied harboring any military intentions, however. A Global Times editorial, 'Gwadar move renews 'China Threat' cliché', argued on Monday that such fears were simply the latest expressions of a more general insecurity.
Some outside China are also skeptical of the encirclement theory. From Daniel W. Drezner at Foreign Policy early this month:
Another strategic explanation for the Gwadar takeover is the prospect of a 'Chinese California': a borrowed west coast on the Indian Ocean, linked to China by a railway and oil pipeline to Xinjiang. This might lessen China's reliance on oil imports carried through the potentially vulnerable Strait of Malacca, from the Indian Ocean into the South China Sea. Similar plans have been mooted in the past for Myanmar, and though plans for the Gwadar railway predate Yangon's drift away from Beijing, that development may increase the appeal of the Pakistani route. But Gwadar's utility in energy security terms has also been disputed. From Xu Tianran at Global Times:
The deal may be less about Gwadar's location than part of a broader pattern of Chinese port investments around the globe, as growth in China slows and struggling operators elsewhere sell cheaply. From Joanne Chiu at The Wall Street Journal:
Although featured on the back of Pakistan's five rupee note, Gwadar has not been a commercial success so far. From Declan Walsh at The New York Times:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| ‘Gas Explosion’ Kills Chinese Official’s College-Age Daughter Posted: 20 Feb 2013 07:55 PM PST The People's Daily recently reported that an explosion killed one person in a residential complex in Shanxi province on February 18. Where the official account in state media lacked detail, however, online sources were quick to assert that the incident was more than a simple explosion. Li Xudong, an investigative journalist with China Business Media, posted this account of the incident on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter: "At 9 AM on the 18, there was a big explosion affecting the family of a Shanxi province Xiangfen county tax bureau official. The government official living in the building received a phone call: 'I've sent a gift for you. I set it in front of your door. Go down and get it yourself.' The government leader sent his 22-year-old daughter (a college student home on vacation) to go pick it up. When she moved the box, it exploded violently. She was totally incinerated, and the building was structurally damaged." His post was quickly retweeted over 5,000 times. Other versions of the incident also included screenshots of the local news organization's initial report from the scene, which confirmed that the girl killed was the daughter of a Chinese Communist Party official, but did not include information about the telephone call. Reactions to these accounts, in which the bombing was political in nature, were mixed. One Weibo user commented, "Class struggle is complicated." Another, wrote "Killing the chicken to scare the monkey [a Chinese phrase meaning to make an example of someone]! It makes one so very happy." Someone even summed up the general sentiment of the responses: "I only get one impression from looking at all these comments. The people are extremely angry." Netizen @必须各种坑 responded to those voices:
Still more netizens questioned the veracity of the information. No one posting the information about the alleged phone call indicated the source of that detail, which presumably only the government official or the perpetrator would know. Some even stated that the explosion was probably not a bomb at all, but an accident that happened to kill the young girl. Such bombings are not unheard of in China, but the targeting of government officials is rare and more prevalent in countries with ongoing military conflicts or insurgencies. An investigation into the cause of the bombing is underway, according to state-run media, and it may never be clear whether the telephone call is part of the true story or a baseless conspiracy theory. The gleeful responses to the incident, however, may serve as proof that public sympathy with local government officials is extremely low. |
| Chinese College-Student Staple Positioned as “Luxury” Good on Gilt.com Posted: 20 Feb 2013 07:35 PM PST
Let's call it "reverse luxury arbitrage" with a delicious–and throat-searingly spicy–twist. Luxury arbitrage, at least as it commonly relates to China, is the practice of Western brands charging more in China than they do in their home countries. For example, the cost-conscious drinker's favorite beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, positions itself as a luxury brand in China, even selling a special edition of the beer for US$44, according to Time online. Recently, it appears that someone has engaged in a bit of turnabout. Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce, which Tea Leaf Nation enthusiastically recommended to the Washington Post as a "taste of China's heartland" during Christmas buying season, is now making its way to the West, with a huge markup. Lao Gan Ma, which literally means "old godmother," is just one of many brands of the fierce and unctuous spice beloved in the cuisines of Western China. The front of each bottle of Lao Gan Ma features the godmother's stern but affectionate visage, seemingly exhorting users to eat their vegetables–provided they are slathered in several pints of red-hot chili oil. The spice commonly sells in China for about 7.9RMB, or US$1.27. In the U.S., the import is perhaps understandably a bit more expensive, retailing for about US$4.00 on Amazon.com. But users of Tencent Weibo, a Chinese micro blogging platform, are having a hoot over chatter that American luxury flash-buying site Gilt.com's spinoff Gilt Taste previously featured a pair of bottles for US$11.95. At just under US$6.00 per bottle, that's a a 471% markup over the Chinese price. As Sohu Business reports, the Gilt sale of Chinese chili sauce became a hot topic on Tencent Weibo yesterday, resulting in over 10,000 posts on the subject. Sohu reports that users enjoyed the contrast between Gilt's slick presentation of the product and its reputation in China as a staple for college students looking to dress up their instant noodles. A current Gilt Taste page presents the sauce in a more alluring light:
Of course, an average American consumer makes far more per capita than an average Chinese consumer, so the comparison is perhaps unfair. On the Sina microblogging platform, user @小宇0314 took a stab at the math: "In China, where the average income is 30,000RMB, it's 7.9 RMB/bottle. In the U.S., where the average income is US$40,000, [$4.00/bottle] is … a 'luxury item'? Are you testing our IQ?" It's not exactly clear why this topic has only recently gained steam in the Chinese blogosphere. Chatter pegs the Gilt sale as occurring July 2012. Meanwhile, comments on this Gilt page featuring the saucy godmother date from September 2011. Many of them are in Chinese. The most recent, translated, reads: "Lao Gan Ma now selling on gilt.com…WTF." |
| Watch: An Animated Introduction to the Chinese Army Hacking Scandal Posted: 20 Feb 2013 06:06 PM PST As many China-watchers know by now, a recent earth-shaking report from U.S. cyber security firm Mandiant has alleged that the Chinese People's Liberation Army is behind many cyber attacks against American organizations. It's a complex and grim issue, to be sure. For those looking for a more irreverent take on the news, Taiwan-based Next Media Animation has generously given Tea Leaf Nation permission to carry the above video. Please enjoy.
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| Wang Lijun Allegedly Sought British Asylum Posted: 20 Feb 2013 05:51 PM PST A forthcoming book by Chinese journalists Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang claims that Wang Lijun unsuccessfully sought asylum from the U.K. months before entering the U.S. consulate in Chengdu last year, adding yet more ingredients to the well-cooked story of Chongqing's former police chief and his superior, Bo Xilai. The book, A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel, is to be published in the U.K. in April. From Tom Phillips at The Telegraph:
See more on Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai via CDT. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Interactive Maps of China’s Most–and Least–Polluted Places Posted: 20 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST Nearly five weeks ago, Beijing experienced its worst day of air quality on record: Levels of PM2.5 — small particulates that can cause lung, cardiovascular and respiratory disease — soared to more than 30 times the level considered safe by the World Health Organization. Air Quality in China — A Snapshot
Since then, reporting on China's "airpocalypse" has been accompanied by what seems like a monochromatic slideshow of the country's iconic cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin —all smothered in thick smog. Indeed, China's most populous and prosperous cities are among the epicenters of this latest pollution crisis. In Tianjin, for instance, levels of PM2.5 hit 577 on February 9, the eve of the Chinese New Year. In Beijing, sales of New Years' fireworks dropped 37% after the municipal government asked residents to limit their use. But air quality in China is also a nationwide problem — a predicament that affects cities with far less name recognition than Beijing or a Shanghai. Last week, the People's Daily reported that of the 74 key cities monitored by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, all 74 reported "excessive" PM2.5 concentrations on February 10, the first day of the Chinese New Year. And as a glance at pollution figures from this morning shows, hazardous air conditions remain in cities throughout China, from Urumqi (with a PM2.5 concentration of 511 micrograms per cubic meter, or 20 times the recommended limit) to Guangzhou.
China's Most Polluted Cities
1. Xingtai, Hebei
China's Least Polluted Cities
1. Haikuo, Hainan
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| Word of the Week: Expensive Country Posted: 20 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space's Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.
A sarcastic reference to China. This term was popularized because of discontent over high prices; gui guo is a country in which basic needs like housing, fuel, power, and healthcare are all too costly. Gui is also the honorific form of "your"; gui guo, literally "your honorable country," is often used in diplomatic speech. Using gui guo in reference to China separates the speaker from his country, in opposition to 我国 wǒ guó, "our country." Xiao Qiang and Perry Link explain that in this turn of phrase, netizens imply that "the state that belongs to you rulers, not to me." © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Photo: The Hands of Huang Magang, by Michael Steverson Posted: 20 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST  The Hands of Huang Magang © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| PLA Unit 61398 Recruitment Notice Found Posted: 20 Feb 2013 09:09 AM PST  This 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai is the headquarters of Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army. China's defense ministry has denied that it is responsible for initiating digital attacks. (New York Times) China's Ministry of National Defense quickly denied charges outlined in a widely circulated report from information security firm Mandiant that exposed a specific unit of the People's Liberation Army as responsible for hacking against the U.S. and other countries. Reuters reports a statement published on the Ministry's official website called into question the evidence put forth by The New York Times, saying, "The report, in only relying on linking IP address to reach a conclusion the hacking attacks originated from China, lacks technical proof." Well, thanks to the shrewd detective work of Chinese netizens, we now have further evidence–a 2004 notice, still viewable on the website of Zhejiang University (at the time of this article's publication), titled "China's People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 Recruiting Graduate Students" [zh].
Via CDT Chinese. Translated by Little Bluegill. © Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us |
| Cross-Strait Reunification’s New Enemy: Mainland Censors Posted: 20 Feb 2013 08:32 AM PST  A screenshot of Frank Hsieh's now-defunct microblogging account. (via Weibo) One day after the Chinese microblog account was verified by Sina Weibo as belonging to Frank Hsieh, the former presidential nominee of Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), it was stealthily erased. But the disappearance did not go unnoticed; instead, it brought a tidal wave of online comments on China's social media. No doubt the account was censored, but the swiftness of its demise still surprised many, since Hsieh only posted a few abstract musings on liberty and constitutionalism in his short Weibo career. Hsieh is considered one of the DPP honchos who takes a milder stance on Taiwan independence and showed his willingness to break the ice with the mainland through a visit in 2012. Many mainland Internet users, who still cherish the idea of reunification with Taiwan, believe that such moves would only serve to undermine any chance of reaching that goal.  China's Spokesperson: I want to emphasize that China's Internet is open. @XL微勃 wrote, "This censorship would allow Taiwanese-independence advocates to tell the Taiwanese people that, 'See, this is the mainland. They don't tolerate a Weibo account, how can they tolerate freedom?' Why in the world would they agree reunify? These moves by dumb-ass officials are turning Taiwan's popular opinion against the mainland. Are they spies sent by independence advocates?" @白鸟摄影 agreed, "They won't tolerate Frank Hsieh, how can they earn the trust of more than 20 million Taiwanese? Reunification sounds like a pipe dream." @王翊均 commented with anger, "This large country is afraid of a Weibo account of a DPP politician? Who is impeding reunification? Who is making it seem like there are two different countries across the Taiwan Strait?" Some Internet users speculated that China's propaganda department, known for its tone-deafness, likely ordered the deletion to prevent Hsieh from winning hearts and minds on the mainland and advancing the independence agenda. The deletion of Hsieh's account followed censorship of Weibo posts of other prominent Taiwanese personalities, including businessman Kai-fu Lee and actress Annie Yi. Hsieh tweeted before his account vanished, "Whether or not there is freedom of speech does not depend on how freely you speak when you criticize high officials or people in power, but whether you lose your freedom after you speak."
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| The Decline of the Expat: Foreigners in China Proliferate, But Become Less Special Posted: 20 Feb 2013 06:40 AM PST  A 2008 expat Halloween party in Shanghai. (Jakob Montrasio/Flickr) In recent months, the "China expat" has been making international headlines. Several longtime residents of China announced their intention to leave on public forums, explaining that living in China was not only hazardous to their health, but worse, an alienating experience. However, their much-publicized exits seem to be the anomaly, not the trend. The Shanghai Daily reported that Shanghai's expat population now exceeds 173,000 – a 6.7% increase from 2011. What's more, that figure only accounts for a quarter of the total number of foreign residents currently residing in mainland China. The rise of the expat China's expat population has grown every year since 2000; in 2004, the government even introduced a green card system allowing foreign citizens to gain permanent residency. Before then, newcomers arrived in China to find a world stringently guarded against the outside. These early expats were the pioneers, the ones willing to carve out a life for themselves in cities bereft of cheese, English signage and sit-down toilets. Local food was dirt-cheap, and Western fare impossible to find outside of hotels. Instead of streets clogged with cars, dusty bicycles reigned supreme. Meanwhile, anyone with a white face and/or foreign passport was associated with wealth and prestige, regardless of their actual status. Mark Kitto – a Welshman who has spent the last 16 years of his life in China, and whose exit set off the aforementioned spate of farewell letters in the Sinophile blogosphere – puts it best: "When I arrived in Beijing [in the mid-'80s], China was communist … The basic necessities of life: food, drink, clothes and a bicycle, cost peanuts. We lived like kings – or we would have if there had been anything regal to spend our money on." A changing climate Life changed dramatically in the last decade, however, at least in China's major metropolises. These days, expats are practically spoiled for options, from Western grocery stores to pubs, international fast-fashion retailers to luxury brands, Burger King to Michelin-starred restaurants. Part of this can be attributed to the influx of expats, with local businesses adapting their offerings to keep up with demand, and part to expats themselves opening up restaurants, bars and boutiques that cater to foreign tastes. But far more significantly, the market has been redefined by a burgeoning Chinese urban middle class with more spending power. In an interview with CNN Money, consultant Helen Wang notes: "The Chinese are shopping a lot more. Retail is booming like a wildfire in China. There are a lot more consumers and they are demanding a lot more services." This domestic growth, coupled with the economic downturn in America and Europe, has many Western companies expanding across the mainland, looking towards China to fill the gap. At the same time, even more expats are flocking to China. Expat Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, in an op-ed piece for The New York Times, explains: "[Besides] well-paid executives … there are also younger expats [who have been] pushed away from home by unemployment and pulled to Asia by work and travel opportunities, combined with lower living costs." Shifting roles What does this mean for China's expats? First off, they are less and less a novelty. Once upon a time, they were asked to pose for photos wherever they went. While this is still true in most areas, they are now hardly given a second glance in the trendier areas of big cities. With more of them around, expats have been demystified – and more opportunities for interaction have perhaps led local Chinese to a startling revelation: that many foreigners are poor students, or are struggling to make ends meet, while China's middle class is only growing more and more wealthy. If "laowai" (a colloquial Chinese term for foreigners) are no longer assumed to be rich, of course they will be entitled to fewer privileges. In July 2010, China-based journalist Mitch Moxley wrote an article called "Rent a White Guy" for The Atlantic about his experience as a fake businessman in a third-tier city in China, where the "only requirements were a fair complexion and a suit." Is this sort of scenario still possible? Absolutely. Will it be in another ten years? Probably not. At China's current rate of growth – The Guardian recently cited a U.S. Intelligence report that predicts China will be the largest economic power by 2030 – local Chinese will have plenty of rich people among them. Its urban areas will likely become less and less affordable for the young foreign college grads who have been drawn to China in recent years. (2009 already saw a 25% jump in housing prices in Beijing.) Bloomberg Businessweek writer Shaun Rein cautioned, "[foreigners] need to remember that operating a business here is not easy, and they need to be patient. China is no longer a cheap place to do business, and competition from domestic companies is fierce." Exploring the fears surrounding this shift, French expat Benoit Cezard released a photo series, "China 2050," that reimagines expats as construction workers, maids and street vendors, taking on the roles traditionally filled by China's devastatingly poor migrant worker population. Most telling are Chinese netizens' reactions to the pictures, which have since gone viral. On Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, @六耳猕猴在北京 said: "By 2050, China will be the economic superpower. The white devils who come to China will have to take on the low-paying positions. If only I could see this happen in my lifetime." @陈大瓏琦 commented: "This is a reminder to white people what the consequences of high welfare and complacency are." It's worth noting these commenters both conflate being foreign in China with being white; China's resident foreigners are more diverse than that. While the expat underclass that Cezard imagines is an extreme rendition, he does make one important point: that the influence of expats is waning as China's world status grows. Does this mean that fewer opportunities will be available to them? Certainly, they will no longer be able to rely on their "exotic" looks to land a job. But an increasingly powerful China will continue attracting expats, who will simply have to adapt and face new challenges. And while that will make life less "interesting" for expats, it will also make life more fair. |
| 25 Essential China Survival Apps Posted: 20 Feb 2013 12:50 AM PST We loved the list of tips and tricks for living in Beijing that Kaiser Kuo wrote on Quora. We agree with them all (especially the last one). Not being able to top such comprehensive and impassioned advice, we thought we'd go a different route. Since we (YJ excluded) confess to occasionally both whining AND bitching, we've come to rely on a few simple hacks to avoid unnecessary bad China days. Which ones did we miss? Leave us a comment and let us know your top survival apps! Language Skills
Shopping & Eating
Social
Music
Video
Travel
UMeTrip (航旅纵横) Yidao Yongche (易到用车) Utilities
Conversion Apps Helpful Tips
Related Posts |
Pleco
Waygo Visual Translator
Xiaoma Hanzi (小马词典)
Sogou Pinyin Input (搜狗手机输入法)
Taobao (淘宝)
Etao (一淘)
Alipay (支付宝钱包)
Dazhong Dianping (大众点评)
MTime (时光电影)
Wochacha (我查查)
Sina Weibo (新浪微博)
WeChat (微信)
Xiami (虾米)
Douban FM (豆瓣FM)
Youku (优酷)
Sohu Video (搜狐视频)
iQiyi (爱奇艺)
Funshion (风行)
Kascend (开迅视频)
Flvshow (视频飞搜)
Ctrip
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